


Sometimes the Best Present is Your Presence

by Pastelgothlapis



Category: Epithet Erased (Cartoon)
Genre: Basically just holiday hcs for these characters in a fic shaped trenchcoat, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Holidays, also as per usual Giovanni uses they/them pronouns and Mera and Sylvie are trans!, also like everyone is post redemption obvi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-21
Updated: 2020-12-21
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:34:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,247
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28224684
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pastelgothlapis/pseuds/Pastelgothlapis
Summary: Molly has to work during the holidays so her friends come cheer her up!
Relationships: Giovanni Potage & Indus Tarbella, Giovanni Potage & Mera Salamin, Molly Blyndeff & Giovanni Potage, Molly Blyndeff & Mera Salamin, Sylvester "Sylvie" Ashling & Giovanni Potage, Sylvester "Sylvie" Ashling & Indus Tarbella, Sylvester "Sylvie" Ashling & Molly Blyndeff, Sylvester "Sylvie" Ashling & Molly Blyndeff & Giovanni Potage & Mera Salamin & Indus Tarbella
Comments: 6
Kudos: 22





	Sometimes the Best Present is Your Presence

The holiday shopping rush was shaping up to be pretty hectic for Molly this year. Her dad all but locked himself in his workshop making toys for the season and Lorelei was even less present than usual, opting to hang out at the mall or with friends, or in general anywhere that didn’t require her to watch the store. Molly sighed and half heartedly smiled to the customer on the other side of the counter. “So sorry about the delay, I can ring you up now, if you’d like?” She asked hesitantly as if she was fearing the woman’s wrath in the event she said or did the wrong thing. The woman haughtily replied. “Well it’s about time! I’ve been waiting for nearly fifteen minutes!” She began scanning the toys and continued on with her script. “I’m so sorry about the delay, will that be cash or credit?” The woman huffed. “Credit obviously.” Molly took the card and clenched her jaw trying to keep up the facade of politeness. As she handed the woman her bag she spotted two familiar pink heads of hair walking down the sidewalk towards the shop. 

Just as the rude lady was leaving, Giovanni walked in and nearly crashed into her. “Hey watch where your going!” Giovanni stuck their tongue out in her general direction as she walked out. “What a jerk...” Sylvie’s ears were pink as they walked in behind the enby. “Must you always be like that!?” Giovanni got defensive for a second before retaking a calmer composure. “Hey! She was rude to me first! But it doesn’t matter! We’re on a much more important mission right now!” They strutted over to the register Molly was sitting behind and continued. “We’re on a mission to help out Beartrap and make sure her day is totally awesome~ even if she still has to work today!” Molly grinned happily. “Aw thanks boss! It’s so nice to see you guys! I really don’t need too much help with the store right now since I’m gonna close up in an hour but I’m so happy you guys decided to drop by!” Sylvie smiled warmly. “Well regardless, we’ll happy to help out with whatever you need! ...Mera and Indus were supposed to come too but I guess they must have gotten delayed or something-“ 

Mera and Indus walked through the door just in time to interrupt Sylvie. Indus’s booming voice startled Molly as he called out his usual greeting. “Good afternoon Miss Molly, Dr. Ashling, Mx. Giovanni! Molly cheerfully waved the pair over to join them. “I’m so glad you two could make it, Sylvie was just saying a few seconds ago that you guys were gonna be here any time now.” Mera’s teeth chattered as she hugged her faux fur coat to herself trying to warm up. “W-well we would have been here sooner but we had to park all the way down the block! The entire arts district is completely packed, it’s insane out there! Not to mention freezing!” Indus slightly shrugged and smiled. “I guess Lady Mera isn’t as used to the cold as I am. Anyway though, Mx. Giovanni suggested that we all come down and help you out with the shop so here we are! What was it that you needed help with again?”

Molly stuck her hand to her chin and thought for a second. “Well I’ve pretty much got a handle on things but maybe you guys can help me restock some stuff and keep me company while I run the register? If it’s not too much trouble that is-” Giovanni grinned and interrupted the last part of her sentence. “Of course Beartrap! We’ll have this place so stuffed with stock that you’ll never run out! C’mon big guy let’s get to it!” They motioned for Indus to follow them to the back room and the tall man happily skipped along after them. Molly looked a little bit nervous and turned to Sylvie. “Maybe you better go with them to make sure they restock the right things... I don’t want a repeat of the furby incident...” She shuddered, thinking of how for two weeks, three hundred of the electronic creatures had flooded the shop, continuously babbling with no signs of stopping. Sylvie’s response quickly snapped her back to reality. “I’m on it!” He replied cheerfully, following Giovanni and Indus into the back room. 

“Mera, you can help keep me company at the register if you want, the rush is starting to quiet down for now so we can just hang out for a bit.” She pulled out the plastic chair next to her and patted it gently, gesturing for Mera to sit down. Mera chuckled to herself as she came over. “As long as I don’t have to move boxes I’m happy.” She hung her coat on the back of the chair and sat down. “Oh that’s such a cute Hanukkah sweater, is it new?” Mera looked down at the sparkly blue garment and smiled. “Yeah, Giovanni gave it to me, it was actually pretty cool of them to work so hard to make something as cool as this for me!” Molly nodded. “Yeah, boss is really detail oriented about those sorts of things.” A slight look of annoyance crept on to Mera’s face as she thought about Molly’s comment. “Yeah I know, the only problem is, I have no idea how to top it! It has to be something that completely blows their awesome gift completely out of the water!” Molly furrowed her brow. “You’re still mad at them for showing up your gift at Sylvie’s sweet sixteen aren’t you?” Mera averted Molly’s gaze and crossed her arms, puffing out her cheeks. “Maybe...”

Molly smiled. “Well your in luck because I’m sure I can help you come up with some great ideas for their gift. They really like-“ She was cut off by Giovanni and Sylvie bickering and pulling Indus in two different directions. The tall enby pulled him towards the front of the store. “Obviously we should put these bears in the front! They’re awesome and everybody’s gonna want one if they see them!” Sylvie pouted and pulled Indus towards the back of the store. “No! They’re stuffed animals! They need to go with the other stuffed toys! How are customers supposed to find anything if the store isn’t organized!?” As each of them pulled on Indus’s arms a tear in the cardboard box began to form as his arms were pulled in each direction until finally the box was torn in half, scattering the bears across the floor. Indus looked down, frowning. “Uh-oh.” Giovanni turned to Sylvie. “Now look what you did, nerd!” Sylvie indignantly shot back. “Me!? Look what you did!” Molly rubbed her temples in exasperation and considered activating her epithet to drown out the noise.

Before she could though, Mera walked over and intervened. “Alright, both of you need to shut up, we’re supposed to be helping Molly, not upsetting her. Giovanni, you take a few bears to put in the window, Sheep Boy, you and Indus put the rest of those bears on the shelf where they belong.” She clapped her hands together in an impatient manner. “Chop chop everyone!” Shrugging, Giovanni picked out some bears and got to positioning them in the window without much complaint. Sylvie however, pouted for a moment before complying with Mera’s ever so helpful suggestions. “Just so you know I find that nickname incredibly irksome! Also how come they don’t get an annoying nickname!?” Mera snickered. “Because they actually like getting annoying nicknames.” Sylvie wore a very annoyed expression for a moment before shrugging it off and moving on with his work. “Yeah, that’s fair.”

When Mera took her seat back at the register she and Molly began chatting again. “Wow Mera, that was amazing, I wish I had the kind of confidence to take charge like that.” Mera smiled at her surprisingly warmly. “Don’t worry kid, you’ll get there. It took me years of giving orders to get as good as I am at it now.” Molly raised a brow but brushed off the comment pretty quickly. “ Uhh okay... anyway, what I was saying before was that I think Giovanni would really appreciate a gift that comes from the heart, maybe something that you made yourself would be nice.” Mera fidgeted with her hair as she thought about it. “Well unless they want a shattered glass sculpture or for me to break someone’s legs for them I’m out of ideas.” Mera smirked at the thought clearly amused by her own comment. Molly quickly tried to steer her away from those gift ideas. “Well, maybe you can just observe them for awhile, I get some of my best gift ideas that way!” Mera shrugged. “Eh, maybe, I guess I’ve got nothing better to do anyway.”

As Giovanni and Sylvie came back out of the stock room Mera overheard them complaining about something or other. Giovanni scowled for a moment as they picked up a doll box. “Look at these fashion and makeup choices! I swear it’s like none of these designers even know what looks good together!” Sylvie nodded along with their rant seeming bored and mostly apathetic. “I’ll definitely have to help Beartrap order some more interesting dolls to sell in the shop, these just won’t do!” They tossed the doll back on the shelf and Sylvie immediately straightened the box to line up with the rest of the boxes on the shelf. “They totally should have gone with blue hair on that doll, and maybe some black makeup to complete the look-“ They cut themselves off mid sentence and snuck away from restocking with Sylvie and Indus to grab something that apparently caught their eye. 

Giovanni stared down the shiny metallic yoyo with wide eyes. “That’s gonna be so perfect!” They grabbed the yoyo and attempted to discreetly make their way up to Molly and Mera. “Psst, sorry for being a customer but I wanna get this! It’s gonna be so perfect for-... someone.” They attempted to point discreetly at Sylvie but ended up just looking deranged and nearly catching his attention in the process. Molly stared grimly. “Well... some crimes can never be forgiven... But fortunately being a customer isn’t one of them!” Molly smiled, giggling as she brightened up her dark tone half way through the sentence. When the price rang up Giovanni raised an eyebrow before shrugging it off and handing Molly a credit card. “You’re lucky my moms gave me a credit card for the holidays! I don’t think I’ve got that much cash on me! But this is gonna be totally perfect, so it’s fine to overspend a little bit! Also I need it to be extra, especially, super perfect since I, ahem, took my time finding something great...” They grinned earnestly as they explained the last portion.

As Molly printed out their receipt Mera figured this would be the perfect opportunity to gather intel on what they might want as a present. “Soooo any ideas as to what you might want for the holidays?” Being subtle was not Mera’s strong suit, fortunately for her however, obliviousness was in fact Giovanni’s strong suit. “Yep! I mailed my list off last week! I’m gonna get so much cool stuff this year!” Mera raised an eyebrow at that but moved on. “Um, right, well is there anything specific that you’ve been interested in this year?” They put a hand to their chin and thought about it for a second. “Well I have been getting into rerooting! And cross stitch! And also I finally gave crochet a chance and it turns out it’s just as fun as knitting! And also-“

Suddenly an alarm went off on Molly’s phone, Mera was almost thankful it cut off her and Giovanni’s conversation, even though it startled Molly. As Molly fumbled with her phone to turn it off she caught a glimpse of the time and in turn remembered why she set the alarm. “Alright, it’s time to close up, you guys can stop restocking if you want, I can finish it tomorrow.” Indus and Sylvie looked up from playing with some of the stuffed animals. Sylvie blushed, clearly embarrassed and Indus just smiled warmly. “Actually Miss Molly, we finished restocking fifteen minutes ago, we’ve just been playing with the toys since then, Dr. Ashling came up with quite the exciting plot line!” Sylvie said nothing but felt his cheeks heat up even more at the ‘accusation’. 

Not paying much mind to Sylvie’s embarrassment, Molly continued her usual closing routine, walked over and flipped the open sign to the closed side and locked the door. Before Molly could suggest that her friends could go home if they wanted, Giovanni interjected with an idea. “Since it’s not too late yet why don’t we all go out and get a snack and keep hanging out for awhile! I could really go for some ice cream maybe!” Molly, Sylvie and Indus happily agreed but Mera was a little hesitant. “You want ice cream!? In this weather!? Fine but don’t blame me when your tongues get frozen to your mouths.” Molly giggled at Mera’s quip. “I wouldn’t dream of it, but c’mon we better get going before it gets too late!” With that the five of them filed out of the shop, bundling up and happily discussing the prospect of getting frozen treats despite the chill in the air.

**Author's Note:**

> So I know I basically stopped posting for a few months but what can I say, writers block combined with a ton of homework can be a real bitch sometimes. 
> 
> Anyway if you enjoyed this fic be sure to leave a comment and kudos! It’s support from readers like you that fuel me to keep writing! Also check out my tumblr @pastelgothlapis if you’re so inclined!


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